Quote I like

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. - Albert Einstein

Benefit Dinner

I had the chance to hear Tony Evans of http://www.tonyevans.org It was interesting. I still get the impression that people think at some point in our life if we sign up with Jesus it becomes rosey. I think there is something to our lives modeled after our suffering and rejected savior. Maybe to much Bonhoeffer.

Sleep

Is still very much a part of what I need to function. I feel like a zombie. Plus I had indian which makes me want to fall asleep right now.

The Dating

Had a good time last night. We took a few minutes to have serious talks about serious things. I think I may prefer talking about nothing and having a good laugh. Still having a great time with her though. Even the serious talks are worth it.

A quote I like:
Reality is something you rise above.

The Shelter

Last night we had a lot of new people come and serve at the shelter which is great and important to me. Through these experiences we gain something and hopefully it's not the "I did my service bit for the week/month/year/decade". Hopefully we can see a call to restoring the kingdom of God. Hopefully we can see more of what God has in store for us.

Thanks to everyone who came out. I pray it makes a difference in your perspective.

Also tonight is the benefit dinner for Breakthrough Urban Ministries and they have an fairly conservative speaker coming out tonight. So that should be interesting. Hopefully my roommate won't be weirded out and she will see something in the whole thing that gets her thinking.

Wyatt Houtz Reads My Blog

Wyatt is a friend from a church I used to go to. You can read his blog at here. If you read through it you will find many posts that I don't agree with and would never have written myself. That is the beauty of conversation though. Be easy on him as he is recently married and now has an infinite amount of stuff to figure out now that he has a wife. :)

Quote I like

“Anything worth anything is a beast,” he says. “The thing I don’t understand is looking at this as a failure. It’s talked about like it failed, I guess because it wasn’t flawless. Me, I embrace the messiness of life. I find it so beautiful, actually.” - Brad Pitt

Who would have thought.

"The Dating"

I've been dating for around 2 months. Same person and things are going well.

In contrast someone got my debit card info and used it on True.com. I guess they don't think the dating has been going that well.

Quote I like

"Life is a succession of moments, To live each one is to succeed." - Corita Kent

Wolf VS Sheep

http://www.gapingvoid.com/

Update on Doing Life Together

So our house church/missional community/emergent church/new monastic/cell group/sect just finished sharing our stories over the last four weeks. It was good to hear where everyone came from. It was good to here were people wanted to be going. It was good and bad that no one knows where this is going.

Last week we discussed the idea of community and doing life together. We talked about what we thought it was, what was the point of doing it, and then if X was the point did we still want to do it.

This week we are discussing the book of common prayer and what it has to say for this week. Hopefully we will also talk about what people want to do in regards to service and World Relief.

One Perception I Wish The Church Was Known For

One Perception I Wish The Church Was Known For:

1. Radical love. Silly love. Love that defies rational explanation. Love that can only be explained by people following in the footsteps of one who was willing to lose his life that all may gain theirs. This love should permeate every decision we make, from the way we treat our neighbor to way we enact foreign policy.

From Willzhead

Quotes I like

Nothing that you have not given away will ever truly be yours. - c.s. lewis

By itself, experience mans nothing. Meaning is never in the event, but is always in the mind of the meaning-maker - Michael Hall

If you have an old car you need to join

Here is a great site (Junky Car Club.com) dedicated to spreading the message of "Living on less so you can give more." While my car is only 6 years old I plan on keeping it until its 10 years old so I can become an elite member.

Quote

I read this today:

"It's about that anonymous fear thing, sitting in traffic, thinking, 'I'm sure I'm supposed to be doing something else'...

That rings true to me.

Ecclesiastes - You are an interesting book

This weekend TP and I went to a vietnamese restaurant to discuss this confusing book.

We didn't talk much about the book but more about what the whole bible was about. Not an easy subject even though I think we got somewhere.

TP made the point that the last few sentences of the EC book shouldn't detract from the rest of the book. I may agree. Had no idea what the rest of the book meant though.